Steelheading in Oregon?

R

Razaboo

Guest
I am heading to Oregon, Salem and Lincoln City area, during the first week of March, and was wondering if anybody on here has any ideas about steelheading or other fishing opportunities in that area? I have two daughters that are fishing fanatics, but living in Montana there isn't much chance at a steelhead.

Thanks in advance.

Stan
 
I never saw this thread back when you made it, sorry about that. If it were me and I was going out there in March, there's one river I'd make sure to fish...the Umpqua. It flows through Roseburg. It's a big river, you'll want to fish it with a guide, and it has tons of steelhead and big ones.

I have friends who fish the Umpqua every March, and they finally convinced me to give it a try. I took my father in law, who had never been steelhead fishing. I hooked the first fish, and handed him the rod since he'd never caught a steelie. Imagine my regret when I saw this HUGE steelhead come up and roll. It never jumped, but when we finally had it in the net, the guide was going on and on about how few he ever gets that are this big. It was right at 40" long, and full of roe. I told the guide to release the fish as soon as I took a photo, and I thought my father in law was going to cry when he saw that big hen go back into the water. The guide then asked me if I realized how big that fish was and I replied "Yeah, close to 20 pounds." The guide said it was more like 21 or maybe even 22 pounds, and he'd never had a client release a fish that big. I told my father in law that he should be proud to know that hen would get to spawn and make lots more steelhead with the genes to grow into giants.

We went on to catch 3 more fish that day, one around 5-6 pound, and two that were in the 13-15 pound range. We released them all, and the guide kept apologizing for the slow fishing. Heck, it was the best day of steelie fishing I'd ever enjoyed, but he said it was very poor fishing. I had some buddies fishing the south fork of the Umpqua that day, while we were on the north fork. They caught 23 or 24 fish between the two boats that day.
 
Cool report Dan! Imagine a first steelhead ever caught being over twenty pounds!! Did you get any pic's of your trip that you can share with us?

When i caught my best steelie of 17+ on a guided float of the Chetco, i told the guide to release it. From the look on his face, i thought he might throw me overboard. :) Fishing had been slow, he wanted to show off the fish for his business, and he needed the roe. I let him have the fish as we we're booked for the next day as well.

Joey
 
Those are great stories guys.
Once you fall in love with wild steelhead it becomes easy to let them return to the wild, the bigger the better.
Kill all the hatchery fish you want, that is what they are for, but the natives are special and need out help.

Cash flow being a lil tight this year, we didn't get out too much this year.
Still caught our fair share though.
I love these things...

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Just thought that I would report on what happened. We didn't get to go steelheading, but did do some fishing from a dock at Champoeg state park on the Willamette river. My 9 year old daughter hooked something then lost it, otherwise it was just a nice calm hour on the water. Except for the guys that were fishing for Sturgeon, they caught a few and shared thier worms with my kids.

Thanks to those who answered my post earlier.

Good fishing & hunting this year

Stan
 
Joey, I did have some real nice pictures of all the fish, but some POS stole the camera I had them saved on, and that was before I knew about Carbonite. Like a dummy, I had not downloaded them onto my computer. Painful lesson, and one that got me to start saving photos on my computer, which has carbonite backup.
 
Dan, That's really a shame someone stole your camera. Those kinda trips just don't happen that often, even if you live right there, and it would have been great to have those memories on film.

In my twenties, i spent two solid months in south eastern Florida fishing. Talk about a fishing trip!! I had this camera that i only used for single examples of the better fish that i caught and many of them being exceptional ones of different species. It was like a 35 exposure film and very near full of great shots of a 100+ lb tarpon, a big swordfish, a huge Thresher shark, 4' barracuda, 30 lb Permit, 50 lb king mackerel, blackfin, cobia, grouper,...

Some POS stole that camera not too long before i had to leave to be back for a muley hunt in Nevada. I still hurt over those picks lost. I never was able to go back to Florida again for more...

Personal observation; I've had much higher success going to good country Muley hunting than good water steelhead fishing. Though i've been on many a DIY steelie trip, i've really only caught several mature fish. They can be tuff to come by and i tip my hat to those that have the sport nailed down!!!

Joey
 

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